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Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson Quotes

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Famous Jeanette Winterson Quotes

“The Buddhists say there are 149 ways to God. I'm not looking for God, only for myself, and that is far more complicated. God has had a great deal written about Him; nothing has been written about me. God is bigger, like my mother, easier to find, even in the dark. I could be anywhere, and since I can't describe myself I can't ask for help.”

WayHas BeensI CanGodHelpingMotherAsksDarkDealsWrittenEasierBiggerComplicatedBuddhistDescribe Myself
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“Long looking at paintings is equivalent to being dropped into a foreign city, where gradually, out of desire and despair, a few key words, then a little syntax make a clearing in the silence. Art... is a foreign city, and we deceive ourselves when we think it familiar... We have to recognize that the language of art, all art, is not our mother-tongue.”

ThinkingLittlesLongArtMotherDesireLanguageCitiesSilencePaintingKeysDespairArt IsTongueFamiliarDeceivingClearingSyntaxMother Tongue
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights: the accumulations of a lifetime gather there. In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like Braille. I like to keep my body rolled up away from prying eyes, never unfold too much, or tell the whole story. I didn't know that Louise would have reading hands. She has translated me into her own book.”

KnowsFeelsBookWholeStoriesBodyHandsLightEyeCertainReadingSecretToo MuchWrittenLettersLifetimeCodeVisibleAccumulationBraillePalimpsest
Book:Written On The Body
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“When my friend Melot set the trap, I think I knew it. I turned to death full face, as I had turned to love with my whole body. I would let death enter me as you had entered me. You had crept along my blood vessels through the wound, and the blood that circulates returns to the heart. You circulated me, you made me blush like a girl in the hoop of your hands. You were in my arteries and my lymph, you were the colour just under my skin, and if I cut myself, it was you I bled. Red Isolde, alive on my fingers, and always the force of blood pushing you back to my heart.”

IfsThinkingHeartMadeWholeBodyHandsFacesGirlForceCuttingAliveBloodReturnMy HeartMy FriendsRedSkinsFingersWoundsColourPushingTrapsVesselArteriesBlood Vessels
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“And when I look at a history book and think of the imaginative effort it has taken to squeeze this oozing world between two boards and typeset, I am astonished. Perhaps the event has an unassailable truth. God saw it. God knows. But I am not God. And so when someone tells me what they heard or saw, I believe them, and I believe their friend who also saw, but not in the same way, and I can put these accounts together and I will not have a seamless wonder but a sandwich laced with mustard of my own.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldWayBelieveLooksI CanTwoBookTogetherI BelieveMy OwnEffortWonderTakenSawsHeardEventsAccountsBoardsImaginativeGod KnowsSandwichesHistory BooksMustardSeamless
Book:Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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“She was a committed romantic and an anarcha-feminist. This was hard for her because it meant she couldn't blow up beautiful buildings. She knew the Eiffel Tower was a hideous symbol of phallic oppression but when ordered by her commander to detonate the lift so that no-one should unthinkingly scale an erection, her mind filled with young romantics gazing over Paris and opening aerograms that said Je t'aime.”

ShouldMindSaidHardBeautifulYoungBuildingFilledBlowCommittedFeministScalesOpeningOppressionSymbolsLiftsParisTowersCommandersHideousGazingEiffel TowerEiffel
Book:Written On The Body
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“There are many forms of love and affection, some people can spend their whole lives together without knowing each other's names. Naming is a difficult and time-consuming process; it concerns essences, and it means power. But on the wild nights who can call you home? Only the one who knows your name.”

PeopleKnowsMeanWholeHomeTogetherFormNightNamesProcessDifficultKnowingConcernEssenceAffectionWhole LifeConsumingLife TogetherTime ConsumingLove And AffectionForms Of LoveWild NightsKnowing Each Other
Book:Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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“I struggled in my mind with all kinds of defenses. Should I be hurt? Surprised? Should I laugh it off? I wanted to say something cruel to expiate my anger and to justify myself. But it's difficult with old friends; difficult because it's so easy. You know one another as well as lovers do and you have had less to pretend about. I poured myself a drink and shrugged. 'Nothing's perfect.”

KnowsShouldMindWellsKindWantedEasyDifficultHurtPerfectLaughingLoversDrinkDefenseAll KindsJustifyShould IOld Friends
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“I didn't know what hate felt like, not the hate that comes after love. It's huge and desperate and it longs to be proved wrong. And every day it's proved right it grows a little more monstrous. If the love was passion, the hate will be obsession. A need to see the once-loved weak and cowed beneath pity. Disgust is close and dignity is far away. The hate is not only for the once loved, it's for yourself too; how could you ever have loved this?”

IfsKnowsNeedsLittlesHatePassionGrowsFeltHugeDignityWeakPityObsessionDesperateFar AwayDisgustingMonstrousLove And Hate
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“Love, they say, enslaves and passion is a demon and many have been lost for love. I know this is true, but I know too that without love we grope the tunnels of our lives and never see the sun. When I fell in love it was as though I looked into a mirror for the first time and saw myself. I lifted my hand in bewilderment and felt my cheeks, my neck. This was me. And when I had looked at myself and grown accustomed to who I was, I was not afraid to hate parts of me because I wanted to be worthy of the mirror bearer.”

KnowsLifeFirstsHas BeensHandsWantedHatePassionLostFeltSunSawsOur LivesFirst TimeMirrorsWorthyDemonNecksNot AfraidCheeksAccustomedTunnelsWithout LoveBewilderment
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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